All posts tagged David Beckham

United States’ Jermaine Jones celebrates with his teammates after scoring against Portugal at the World Cup.

Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO—When Jermaine Jones scored his ripper of a goal in the U.S.’s second World Cup game against Portugal, John Bush celebrated along with millions of Americans. He also took note of how the ball curved around a Portuguese defender.

While at college at the University of Toronto, Mr. Bush studied fluid dynamics and started to understand more deeply that as a ball flies through the air, there are flow patterns that determine how it moves. Read More »

Americans never had the same memories of David Beckham the way his native fans did: Where they saw balletic displays of artistry capable of sending a team to the World Cup (and losing it, too), we mostly got silent red-carpet performances and a complementary (though effective) stint in MLS as his career was nearing its end. But if Beckham’s stature was at all diminished by his clear decline, and the transference from attention to his abilities on the pitch to his increasingly entrenched marriage with fellow attractive person Posh Spice, it didn’t take long for the warm retrospectives to begin after he announced his retirement last Thursday. He played his final game just two days later, a Saturday game between his Paris Saint-Germain team and Brest, in which he contributed to two goals despite not scoring. Punctuated by a teary conclusion, a standing ovation and an impossibly coiffed haircut, it was as positively righteous a finale as any retiring legend could hope for. Read More »

With the Lakers out of the playoffs, any possibility David Beckham becomes a courtside fixture in Memphis?

Was David Beckham actually underrated? The Sports Retorters talk to Jonathan Clegg, a real, live English person, for the whole truth about the well-manicured soccer titan. (It turns out he did several notable things before his pair of MLS championships.)

Plus: Pia Catton joins us for Preakness predictions, with the usual digression into musical theater. (Spoiler: Along with Orb, she thinks Cyndi Lauper’s a lock for her work on “Kinky Boots.” Call it Lauper Value.) Because the Preakness happens in Baltimore, “The Wire” inevitably comes up. But perhaps for the first time it gets compared with “Muppet Babies.”

Also, these words are uttered: “Moonlight Graham meets Bjorn Nittmo.” You’ll just have to listen to find out why. Read More »

David Beckham celebrates a goal against Colombia in the 1998 World Cup.

Some of David Beckham’s career highlights (and lowlights)

Free Kick vs. Greece:
In the final game of the 2002 World Cup qualifying season, Beckham scores the injury-time goal that sends England into the tournament. The legend of “Goldenballs” is born.

Midfield vs. Wimbledon:
Beckham announces his arrival as a major new talent in typically understated fashion—with a goal from the halfway line on the opening day of the 1996-97 English Premier League season.

PK against Argentina:
Four years after a red card against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup made him public enemy No. 1 in England, Beckham redeemed himself with the winning goal from the penalty spot in the 2002 group-stage matchup. Read More »

On the latest Sports Retort, we know everything about the Super Bowl in New Orleans. But how is it playing in London? The Journal’s English-born American football writer Jonathan Clegg fills us in on his time playing college football (yes, that college football) for the Surrey Stingers in his home country. Plus, what if we just up and shuffled our time zones? Is David Beckham actually underrated? Have fans of a No. 1 basketball team been more scared than our Michigan fans are to play at Indiana? And much more.

Don’t say anything, but the Big Ten hasn’t actually consisted of just 10 schools in nearly two decades, following Penn State’s 1993 induction to the conference. It even expanded to 12 a few years ago, putting further strain on its nom de plume. Fourteen schools? That’s even less like 10, even if conference officials would never deign to ruin such brand recognition by changing the name. There’s no reason to, not as traditional college conference alignments continue to be subverted in a national battle for land and market space resembling a game of Risk, with programs coming and going in an effort to carve out a little more money with so much for the taking. The Big Ten announced Monday the addition of the University of Maryland while strong rumors about Rutgers University’s expected inclusion reached their zenith. With potentially 14 schools stretching from Nebraska to New Jersey, the conference reasserted itself as one of the country’s most recognizable college football entities, regardless of how things turn out on the field. Read More »

Inspired by the impossible-looking bicycle-kick goal scored by Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic against England on Wednesday, the Journal’s Matthew Futterman decided to measure the hang time of some of the most notable long-distance soccer goals of recent years. Inside, what he found. Read More »

While Thursday’s opening World Cup presentations promised fun and sun for the FIFA voters, the English presentation chose to focus on the transformational power of the beautiful game.

In a pitch designed to inspire, to pull on the heartstrings and to remind FIFA voters of the financial benefits of a World Cup in England, the slick 30-minute presentation held out the promise of an international legacy that will boost grass-roots football around the world.

“I’ve seen the good that football can do,” said David Beckham. “I’ve seen how it can change things for the better in all sorts of ways. This is a chance… to create a better future for our grandchildren and many millions more.” Read More »

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Jeremy Gordon is a freelance writer who lives in Chicago. He has written for TheAtlantic.com, MTV and Prefix and occasionally Tumbles and Tweets. The last time he cried was when Steve Bartman dropped the ball.

Jared Diamond writes about sports for The Wall Street Journal. He currently serves as a beat reporter covering the New York Mets and Major League Baseball.

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When Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao step into the ring on May 2, they will fight at the welterweight-class limit of 147 pounds—an odd, seemingly random number that has long held a special mystique.